---
title: When he returned from the pursuit she had finished her combing and c… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he returned from the pursuit she had finished her combing and curling, and his chance of getting any hair was gone. Who acts: gust, mother, chance. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goose-girl, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Goose-girl, sentence 51

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When he returned from the pursuit she had finished her combing and curling, and his chance of getting any hair was gone.

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**Who acts:** gust, mother, chance · **What happens:** return, finish, get, be, comb, chance · **To what, where:** pursuit, combing, hair

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goose-girl. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gust, mother, chance), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg503:37:51
# text = When he returned from the pursuit she had finished her combing and curling, and his chance of getting any hair was gone.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	combing	combing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	curling	curling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
20	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | gust |  |  | the pursuit |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from pursuit=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **finish** | past · perfect | mother | mother's combing and curling |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector combing=Eventuality |
| 3 | **get** | gerund | gust's chance *not said here* | any hair |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hair=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | gust's chance |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **comb** |  | mother |  |  |  |  |  | nom combing «act transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **chance** |  | gust |  |  |  |  |  | nom chance «state intransitive»: poss=agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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